


Long Enough

by va_va_voom



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Angst, Drabble, F/M, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-06
Updated: 2014-10-06
Packaged: 2018-02-20 02:35:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2411804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/va_va_voom/pseuds/va_va_voom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A small drabble detailing how I imagine Saul and Ellen lived out their days on new!Earth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Long Enough

“I can’t _believe_ we’re arguing about my _outfit,_ Saul!”  Ellen said as she continued curling her hair, eyes never leaving her reflection.

“We have to be on the flight deck in ten minutes and you’re doing your frakking _hair_!”

“What else am I supposed to be doing?” came Ellen’s cool response.

“Ohh, I don’t know,” Saul threw another pair of socks into the bag he had been packing.  “Maybe helping make sure we have everything we need!”

“We already do.”  Ellen’s calm was unperturbed by Saul’s fervor.

Saul huffed, but decided against arguing any further.  He finished packing the bag, hoping that he had remembered everything.

“Alright,” he hefted the bag over his shoulder.  “Let’s go.”

Ellen set down her hair curler, smiling and taking Saul’s free hand.  She could feel Saul’s tense confusion and upset slowly settling, and she knew just how it would knot in his back (and how to fix that later).  They piled onto one of the last raptors and descended in silence.  Ellen refused to let go of Saul’s hand, even when jumping down from the raptor’s wing.

“Which way do you think we should go?”  Saul squinted into the distance, holding up a hand to block the sun from his eye.

“It doesn’t matter.”

Saul fought back another sigh.  “Let’s go this way,” he said, leading Ellen forward.  “It looks like there’s water.”

“That’s good.”

They made it to Saul’s sought-after water source right at sundown.  He immediately got to work drawing up enough to drink and setting up the canvas tent he had packed.

“I didn’t see the ration packs in the bag,” he said.  “Did you pack them?”

“No.”

Saul felt his blood run cold.  “So we have no food?”

“That’s what it looks like.”  Ellen was sitting with her feet in the water, gazing out over the lake’s surface contentedly.

“Ellen this is serious!  Why are you acting like you just couldn’t give a frak?!”

Ellen pursed her lips.  “Saul, we should be celebrating, not arguing!  Look at where we are!  Look at how beautiful everything is!  And we’re here together!”

“We can’t celebrate if we’re starving to death, Ellen!”

“Oh yes we can!”  She jumped up and ran toward Saul, pulling her dress off over her head as she went.

“Ellen,” he sighed.  “No, I need to…”  


“No, Saul!  There’s _nothing_ we need to do!  Don’t you see?”

But Saul backed away as Ellen came to a halt in front of him.  “I don’t want to starve out here, Ellen.”  


Her face fell briefly.  “Well, we don’t have to.”  She bent down to the bag and pulled the sidearm out, cocking it and putting it against her head.

“No, no!”  Saul dove forward, but Ellen sidestepped him.

“Look around, Saul!  We made it!  It’s over!  We don’t have to worry about surviving anymore, Saul.”  She smiled, and tears sprung to her eyes.  “We’ve survived long enough.”

Saul continued reaching for the gun, though, and Ellen, after a moment, reluctantly handed it over.

They slept in silence, Saul resolutely facing away from Ellen the entire night.

When morning came, Saul rose first and set a pot of water to boil.  He pulled out the last remaining bottle of ambrosia from the bag, as well - one he had held onto just in case.

“Ellen,” he shook her shoulder.  “I’m going hunting for breakfast.  When I get back, we can split the ambrosia that’s by the fire.”

Ellen smiled, a sleepy, bleary-eyed one, and nodded her assent.

Saul struck out from their camp, returning around noon with a small, dead herd animal slung over his shoulder.

“I went foraging,” Ellen called out as Saul made his way to the fire.

“That’s good,” Saul replied, dropping the carcass by the fire.  He bent down and started hacking at it with his knife.  “We’ll be able to make some good fur clothes out of these things.  Maybe make you a new cocktail dress.”  He looked up at Ellen and laughed, and Ellen followed suit.

“I meant what I said last night, Saul.”

The only answer he gave was a brief pause in his butchering of the animal.

“I know you only remember this one life, but we’ve lived for so long.”

He continued his work on the animal.

Ellen smiled, a small one, and pulled the two metal cups Saul had packed away from the side of the fire.

“I warmed the ambrosia, like that bar we met at.”

Saul set his knife down.  “Did you spice it, too?”

Ellen’s smile broadened.  “I told you,” she said, sliding over to sit next to him, “I went foraging.”

Saul held Ellen’s gaze for a moment.  “I could use that drink.”


End file.
